The Lord of the Rings - The War of the Ring

Lord of the Rings - The War of the Ring
Game data
author	Marco Maggi , Francesco Nepitello , Roberto Di Meglio
graphic	John Howe
publishing company	Nexus Editrice (2004), Fantasy Flight Games , Tilsit Éditions , Phalanx Games (2005) Asmodée Editions , Devir
Publishing year	2004, 2005
Art	strategic board game
Teammates	2 to 4
Duration	120 minutes and more
Age	from 12 years
Awards
International Gamers Award 2005: Best Two-Person Game Expansion The Battles of the Third Age International Gamers Award 2006: Nominated

The Lord of the Rings - The War of the Ring is a strategic board game for two to four players. The game by Italian authors Marco Maggi , Francesco Nepitello and Roberto Di Meglio was published in 2004 with illustrations by John Howe by Nexus Editrice and in a German translation in 2005 by Phalanx Games . The English edition was published by Fantasy Flight Games and the French edition by Tilsit . In 2005 it received the International Gamers Award for best two-person game.

The game is counted in the category of complex strategy games and enjoys great popularity in the game scene.

scenario

The game is based on the Lord of the Rings romance trilogy by JRR Tolkien . In the modeling of the characters, influences from the Lord of the Rings films can also be seen. In the game, the time from the departure from Rivendell to the (theoretical) destruction of the ring in Doom Mountain is re-enacted.

All known heroes (for example Boromir ) appear. In addition, all “actual” events (for example Shelob ) as well as new or only hinted events in the novel (for example Elves in Dol Amroth ) can occur. In this way the game stays true to the scenario and still always tells a new story.

Furnishing

The game's features are very extensive. In addition to the large and detailed map of Middle-earth , which serves as the game board, 204 figures (more than 30 different models), 110 cards, several (special) dice and cardboard stones are used. The figures themselves are monochrome plastic figures that fans can also paint.

Gameplay

Players command the armies of the factions facing each other in this epic battle: the united forces of the Free Peoples and the dark armies of the Shadow . The game includes two ways to win:

• One is the military one that can be achieved by taking enough fortresses and cities on the other side. This victory is usually aimed at by the shadow player, as he has larger armies and production facilities. In addition, the Free Peoples must first activate their troops through politics.
• The hope of the Free Peoples lies mostly in the second chance to win - the ring. If the community manages to destroy the ring, the good side wins. Sauron can prevent and delay this by chasing the ring.

In order to take actions , the players have action dice that are rolled at the beginning of each round. These enable actions such as recruiting or moving troops or advancing the ring group. An action die corresponds to an action. Each player takes turns placing a die until they are all used up and the next round begins. Event cards can also be played with the dice , which enable special actions of the books (or which could have happened). Alternatively, the cards can also be used to increase the fighting strength in the battles rolled out.

The challenge of the game lies in the many groundbreaking decisions. On the one hand, Frodo and Sam need the members of the community (for example Gimli, Legolas) on the way to Mordor. On the other hand, they are also needed to defend against the shadow as a powerful warrior. The shadow player also needs action dice to coordinate his attacks, but must also use them to hunt for the ring. The event cards also have two mutually exclusive uses.

Extensions

In 2006 the expansion The Lord of the Rings - The Battles of the Third Age appeared . New characters are introduced and the battles for Minas Tirith and Helms Klamm can be played separately on other boards. The expansion was nominated for the International Gamers Award 2006.

criticism

The War of the Ring is considered a very successful game because it is varied. It achieves an enormous level of detail and thus a depth in the world shown. However, this game has a wealth of special rules that make beginners easily lose track. Due to the action dice and event cards, the course of the game also depends on chance. The strength of this influence is judged differently by players.

Web links

• The Lord of the Rings - The War of the Ring in the Luding games database
• War of the Ring in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)
• Criticism on reich-der-spiele.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rank 12 (2nd Edition) or Rank 90 (1st Edition) at BoardGameGeek ; accessed on May 29, 2019
2. ↑ Description of the game with rating on kaosonline.com (English) ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Game review on sphaerentor
4. ↑ The War of the Ring on wir-testen-spiele.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.